shewhomust | Lapwings and mining and lambs, oh my!

I could become tedious, I suppose, formulating phrases in threes (oh my!); but it generates a pleasing title, and I like the process of deciding which three things need to be listed. More prosaically, then, this was the "Mineral Valleys Walk" (or so it said on the waymarks); it took us up out of Ireshopeburn (near the top of Weardale) and then down to the burn by this ruin (a place called "Hole"), up past the grazing sheep and many fluffy lambs, higher still into the lapwing pastures, past a variety opf industrial remains and then along the Harthope Burn to St John's Chapel. We picnicked - first of the season! - above the burn, snuggled into the valley side and with a thin band of larch forest to shelter us from the wind (and screen the view). The grey sky and the tawny hillsides looked more like winter than spring, but the wind was fresh rather than biting, even on the tops. Still, by the time we reached St John's Chapel, either it was raining very slightly or we were walking in low cloud, and we looped back lower on the slopes. We did make the slight detour to visit Newhouse, a spectacular mansion built about 1700 for the agent of the Moor Master (who administered the lead mines on behalf of the owner). We came down from above the house, past the gazebo where the miners used to buy their candles, and found the owner of one of the three sections into which the house has been divided, standing outside smoking his last cigarette. "I'm giving up again," he daid. "I only started again because I've had a bad back, and I've been stuck in the house for three weeks." He half offered to invite us in and show us his staicase, but hesitated because the house wasn't tidy, and we didn't press him because we were fairly muddy ourselves: but we appreciated the offer.

There will be more photographs in due course.